


If you Give a Catboy a Mouse Toy

by KageSora



Series: Adrien is Not a Cat [2]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, cat adrien will be the end of me send help, cat behavior, oh god im going to die these two dorks, this turned into adrinette oops sorry not sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-17
Updated: 2016-01-17
Packaged: 2018-05-14 11:32:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,690
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5742163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KageSora/pseuds/KageSora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alya suggests Marinette get some toys for the little black cat she's said was visiting her.  Nino and Adrien tag along.  Adrien, keeping himself under a tight leash since the laser pointer incident, thinks nothing could go wrong.  Oh how wrong he was.  But was it really all THAT bad?</p>
            </blockquote>





	If you Give a Catboy a Mouse Toy

**Author's Note:**

> Okay. I gave in to the temptation. Originally this was more "Ladybug drops a cat toy on the way home from the pet store and goes back to get it but finds Adrien rolling around in an alley rubbing it on his face" but then twilight-symphony over on Tumblr had the idea of a pet store, and the pawsibilities got the better of me. Then the entire fic did, I swear this wasn't supposed to be shippy at all but OOPS. Sorry not sorry.

The plan was simple.  After school, Nino, Alya, Marinette, and he would be going to a local pet store because Marinette--at Alya’s urging--was going to get a toy or two for the cat that had decided to start hanging around her parents’ bakery lately.  (A part of Adrien wondered if this was for an actual cat, or if she was planning on teasing him when he visited her as Chat)

After the...  Incident two weeks back (he still sometimes dreaded going to class because _how in the world did he actually end up chasing the red dot in class oh God he will never live this shame down_ ), he’d been much more careful.  He’d really let Plagg have it, but the kwami brushed it off with “eh, it’s part of the magic.  You get our strength and nifty powers, you get a little something extra sometimes too.  It varies between people, some Chats barely do anything and some are practically cats themselves--even after they stop being Chat Noir.”

He supposed he was just lucky he wasn’t worse off.  He wondered if Ladybug suffered anything along those lines, or if this was just his problem because of the bad luck issue.  Or if any other miraculous holders suffered like this.

So, in light of keeping his impulses on a much tighter leash, he thought nothing would go wrong.  It was just a quick trip--Marinette said she already had an idea or two of what she was looking for anyway.

_Nothing_  could go wrong, right?

Adrien was a little nervous entering the store, there was just a lot going on.  There were a variety of pets from birds (he had to resist the urge to go over to them) to dogs (he’d found of late they made him on edge) to hamsters (they did _not_  look delicious, nope not at all) to fish (again, nope not tasty looking at all), and more.

Alya and Nino branched off to check out the birds, and Adrien decided to stick with Marinette.  Having somebody else around seemed to make it easier to keep his more feline impulses in check.  Marinette, unfortunately, seemed to retain her nerves around him.  He never could figure out why--nor why Nino and Alya seemed so amused by his attempts to understand her behavior.

Still, it was a bit cute how she would blush and stutter around him--not that he liked admitting it.  His Lady, after all, came first in his heart.  But, perhaps there _was_  room for his Princess, too?

He’d allowed himself to get too wrapped up in his thoughts, and didn’t realize Marinette had stopped walking to look at some toys until he’d proceeded to walk right into her.

“Ah!  I’m sorry, are you okay?”

If “!!!!” could have a sound, it would be the noise Marinette managed to make, he thought.  But she somehow got herself to nod furiously, sending her hair flopping around her head--and he had to clamp down on the very sudden urge to bat her pigtails around.   _No!  Bad Adrien!  You’re a people not a cat!_

He hurriedly excused himself, moving a little further into the section to give Marinette a chance to remember how to breathe, something he noticed she seemed to forget from time to time in his presence.

He busied himself looking at feathery cat toys ( _no!  You don’t need to ‘try one out’!_ ) when he found himself sniffing intently, a tantalizing scent catching his nose.

He turned, eyes half closed as he tried to focus, following it a little further into the aisle...

To a section with a variety of catnip-filled cat toys.

_No!  Just turn around and walk away.  Just walk away, Adrien.  They’re for cats, not people.  You are a people!_

He had nearly managed to convince himself to when the slightly unsteady stack of toys shifted a little, settling more.  Which caused one perched on the top of the pile to tumble down.  The quick movement was what he lost his composure to.

He wasn’t even aware of what he was doing beyond dropping to the ground on his stomach, batting the mouse with one hand, knocking it closer to his nose.  He sniffed it, eyes half closing at the smell.  It wasn’t quite enough, though.

He rubbed his face on the toy, finding comfort in the fabric scritching across his skin.  Twisting onto his back, he bit into it, trying to get more of that enticing aroma--and maybe a taste, too!

Something vibrated inside him, a rumble in his chest, and he wasn’t even aware that he had the capacity to purr before the sound was filling the aisle.  He was vaguely aware of a squeak that sounded somewhat like his name, but his attention was centered on the toy in his mouth, determined to get to the center where the source of that irresistible smell was coming from.

* * *

 

Marinette had been eyeing a few of the toys, focusing on them intently to try and get her heart back under control from when Adrien had bumped into her.   _He_  had bumped into _her_  not the other way around!  What was the world coming to?!  That wasn’t how this worked!  But she couldn’t help the little smile that tugged at her lips--he had been a little flustered, and he was _cute_  when flustered!  Well, he was always cute, but more than usual.

She was pulled from her thoughts, though, by a strange sound.  It was a low rumble...  Like a purr?  But louder than any cat she’d ever heard?  She turned, only for her thoughts to grind to a complete halt at the sight before her.

“A-a-adrien?!”  Her voice took on a new high, squeaking out just barely in the audible range to humans in her shock.

Adrien--Adrien Agreste, perfect handsome cool Adrien, Adrien the Model, Adrien her _crush--_ was...

_Playing with a cat toy?!  And...  And purring?!_

He was literally writhing on the ground with a catnip mouse in his teeth, making the most cat-like sound she had ever heard come from another human.  This wasn’t possible, this wasn’t happening.  It _wasn’t happening._

But...  But it was cute!  But no!  No this wasn;t normal!  Was it the doing of some kind of akuma?!

She had to transform!  But first, she had to try to get Adrien under control.  This wasn’t good!  Marinette carefully approached the blond teen, sitting on the ground beside him, wondering how to get his attention when calling his name softly didn’t work.

She gingerly reached over, tugging on the toy.  She was a bit surprised by how strongly he was gripping it, but after a few minutes of tugging she managed to get it out of his mouth.

“A-adrien, th-this is for cats...  You, you’re...!  You’re n-not supposed to...  Be a cat...”

He didn’t seem to be listening, instead rolling over and pawing at her, trying to get the mouse back, his head flopping into her lap.

Her face turning roughly the same shade of red his had when he’d chased the laser pointer in class ( _oh God was this some kind of long-lasting damage from an older akuma attack or something somehow?!_ ), but she managed to grab his hand and push it away from her, trying to get her brain in order.

He was...  Rubbing his head against her stomach, wriggling, and still purring.  Without thinking, she reached out and scratched lightly behind his ears, eyes widening when she realized what she was doing.

She was about to pull her hand away when he went still, the purring increasing in intensity.  Her face retaining it’s color, she hesitantly continued, not really having any idea what else to do.

It was a few minutes before she heard footsteps behind her, though the purring caused her to miss the sharp intakes of breath when their other friends had come looking for them and found them in the aisle like that.

“Nino, I think your best friend is a cat.”

* * *

 

Adrien didn’t remember too much of his escape--just that he suddenly was aware that Nino and Alya were staring at him, and that he found his head on Marinette’s lap.

He had jumped up and run.  He couldn’t ever, _ever_  look any of them in the eyes again.  Plagg had gleefully filled him in on his antics once he’d gotten safely to his room, ignoring the way his phone wouldn’t stop going off.

The next morning he had pleaded sickness, his own dread at facing anybody who knew what he’d done aiding in his act.  His phone had continued to go off but he turned it off to avoid the messages.

He had been expecting as much, but had Nathalie turn his friends away when they tried to visit him.  What he didn’t expect was a confused Nathalie dropping off a small package saying that the stuttering girl had said it was a get-well present.

He frowned, turning the small box over in his hands.  A tiny note was attached, and he opened it.

 

‘ _Adrien--_

_I hope you’re feeling better!  I don’t know what’s going on, but maybe you could come by my parents’ bakery sometime?  We could talk about it, maybe over dinner?_

_\--Marinette’_

 

He really just had no idea how to handle this.  Was...  Was Marinette...   _Asking him out after his display the day before?!_ She...  Well, she did seem to have a soft spot for his antics as Chat, but still!  He wouldn’t see her again anyway--he needed to convince his father to move them to Antarctica ASAP.

So...  It wouldn’t hurt to take a peek at what she’d sent him, right?

He carefully opened the box, eyes widening as a familiar smell wafted out.

He looked down at the small item laying inside.  The mouse-shaped cat toy stared back at him.

Somewhere in the distance he was aware of Plagg cackling.  The last thought in his mind before he snatched the toy up was that maybe, just maybe, he could postpone moving in with the penguins long enough to take Marinette up on that offer of dinner.


End file.
